Yesterday night, using house on the Hudson River Greenway, I got here throughout the aftermath of a nasty-looking collision. The police have been already on the scene and I didn’t wish to get in the way in which, nor did I wish to stand round snapping photos, which felt sleazy and disrespectful. Nonetheless, I did enable myself to rubberneck as I handed, and one of many individuals concerned was on certainly one of this stuff:
Now, I do know the outdated saying: “Whenever you soar to conclusions you make an ass out of you and me.” So I do know I shouldn’t assume that it was the scooter rider’s fault. Additionally, the scooter rider seemed fairly harm, and I hope he’s okay.
HAVING SAID THAT…
These items go quick. Actually quick. What began out as some little motorized gizmos that have been supposed to interchange brief automotive journeys has now morphed into individuals in physique armor dashing by you on the bike path at 30mph wanting like they’re mining for valuable minerals on the floor of an alien planet. Then mere yards from the scene of the crash you’ve acquired these bruhtzes whipping round on electrical dirtbikes or one thing:
And by the point to get to the George Washington Bridge it’s mainly all gas-powered bikes:
Curiously, riders of high-powered electrical “micromobility” gizmos virtually at all times put on full-faced helmets, whereas riders of unregistered gasoline-powered bikes virtually at all times put on no helmet in any respect. I’ve no specific emotions about this, thoughts you, I’m merely documenting their folkways.
As for my emotions about fast-moving motorized contraptions on the bike lane (be they powered by electrical energy or gasoline) I’m unsure what to do about it, and at this level I don’t know that there’s something you are able to do about it, nevertheless it’s actually beginning to suck ass. Everywhere in the remainder of the nation it looks like individuals are more and more turning to gravel using and mountain biking as a result of they not really feel snug on the roads, however right here in New York Metropolis we’re getting near the purpose the place as an alternative of using within the bike lane you’d reasonably experience on the street the place it’s “secure.”
Shifting on, it is a derailleur weblog now, and a commenter yesterday talked about this:
What’s the level of weighing an electrical derailleur with out the battery?
It makes about as a lot sense as a “wi-fi crankset:”
However sure, in its ineffective battery-free state the most recent Tremendous Document derailleur–which might be the most costly derailleur you should buy aside from that weird Jan Heine factor–weighs solely barely lower than a protracted cage SunTour CX Comp derailleur from the late Nineteen Eighties:
Which is the following chain-moving gadget we’ll be within the more and more tedious Basic Cycle twenty first Century Friction Shifter Shootout:
Now, clearly the SunTour is best than the Tremendous Document Wi-fi unit in each means–and if you happen to don’t imagine me, go purchase a Tremendous Document Wi-fi derailleur and see if it’ll work on any of your bikes. However how does it stand as much as the opposite derailleurs in our check? Properly, regardless of its age it’s acquired all the trendy options, together with the much-vaunted slant parallelogram, which after all SunTour invented:
It was additionally designed to work with an listed system:
I do know firsthand that it didn’t click on very effectively as a result of the Rock Combo got here with SunTour so-called “Accushift” shifters, and it’s factor the rear one had a friction mode as a result of it listed very poorly certainly. Moreover, after I modified the rear wheel to Hyperglide, I discovered that the XC Comp rear derailleur would hit the spokes when within the lowest gear on the 8-speed cassette. Because of this alone, I used to be skeptical. Nonetheless, wanting on the inboard aspect of the cage, it did appear to be the profile was loads smoother than the one I had been utilizing, so possibly there was hope:
Certainly, my skepticism turned out to be unfounded, and as soon as mounted there was no spoke contact. Right here’s the derailleur within the giant cog and small chainring:
And right here it’s within the giant cog and huge chainring:
Clearly that is fairly a stretch for a long-cage derailleur meant to wrap a triple-length chain, however I doubt it’s sufficient to trigger any injury if I have been to shift into that combo accidentally.
Shifter place in low gear was proper in between the 90-degrees-from-downtube place of the older derailleurs and the parallel-with-the-floor place of the newer ones:
And so far as efficiency, it labored completely effectively:
I suppose it appeared to run rather less quietly than the newer derailleurs, but when so I’d think about that was most likely a results of the 10-speed chain operating on 7-speed-era pulleys. I additionally didn’t have that “Holy crap, that is good!” second I had with the Veloce, which in some way felt extra “exact,” although that would merely be a operate of the SunTour’s comparatively dowdy look:
Fake crabon weave parallelogram however, when using a highway bike it’s ineffective to fake you wouldn’t reasonably look down and see a shiny silver Campagnolo derailleur, so whereas it’s tempting to say the Veloce objectively feels higher I can’t low cost the likelihood I’m merely imagining it:
That apart, it accommodates the complete cassette, it really works nice, it’s acquired all the trendy options, and in contrast to Campy stuff it isn’t pointlessly costly on the used market:
(Although given my expertise with spoke clearance on the Rock Combo it’s attainable some mannequin years work higher than others on newer bikes.)
So sure, as Paul’s Submit-it portended, friction is certainly the reply right here, and if I didn’t have a complete field filled with shiny derailleurs there could be no purpose to not hold utilizing this one:
And sure, I can’t wait to lastly choose a winner and tidy up that cable, although I’m form of stunned not doing so hasn’t turn out to be a development. In spite of everything, like uncut guitar strings, an uncircumcised cable does have type of a beatnik insouciance:
I’ll sit up for my Nobel Prize.